Shallow grave

Saul fia (Son of Saul)

Crit

One definition of irony: risking everything (such as "everything" is) to bury your son in a place where even the living are dead, and where the surrounding earth wouldn't accommodate all the dead who are no longer breathing. An excruciating film whose horrors are mostly heard or intuited, not seen, but are none the less horrible for that. An almost certain and worthy winner of tonight's foreign-film Oscar.

Trailer

• Mother's Day--Great cast, and while it looks to have the potential to be awful, it's more likely to be one of those middling gynocentric films that my New Year's resolution has me going to.

Two flew over the cuckoo's nest

Touched with Fire

Crit

A bipolar romance, as sympathetic and well-meaning as it is clumsy and naïve. The film tries to explore the relationship between mental illness and artistic genius, but it lacks anything like the smarts needed to tackle such a daunting enigma. 

Spells like cranky old lady spirit

The Lady in the Van

Crit

Alan Bennett, the playwright whose driveway and life were occupied for fifteen years by a smelly, incontinent, crotchety old woman, is of two minds, and that bifurcation is the second-best thing about this film, as it was presumably of the play that birthed the film; it was presumably the best thing about the memoir that birthed the play. Alex Jennings plays Alan Bennett the writer and his antagonist Alan Bennett the liver of life, albeit a very quiet life.

The best thing about the film (and presumably the play) is the casting of Maggie Smith as the titular old lady, because not everyone could make such a genuinely off-putting character so impossible not to love anyway, even before we learn of the demons (largely Catholic ones) that knocked her screw loose.

Trailers

• Dark Horse--Working-class Brits buy shares in a racehorse; a documentary.
• Knight of Cups--Terrence Malick and a terrific cast.
• Sing Street--Lovestruck young boy, and rock 'n' roll to the rescue.

It's a fair cop

The Witch

Post

Wow! How (and why) in the hell did that get booked in multiplexes? Yes, it's about witchery for sure, but in its look, its pacing, its language, it's as arthouse as can be. Hell, though it's set in colonial New England, it feels positively Scandinavian in its unconcern for keeping the customer satisfied. I can't imagine it's going to have any box office, especially by the end of the weekend when word of mouth will have made it clear that viewers are not in for good, brainless thrills and fun.

But if you're in no more hurry than the film is (and incidentally, despite the pace it clocks in at < 100 minutes), and if you're willing to take up residence in a world where piety is merely a minimum condition, and where the existence of evildoing is proved by denial of evildoing, then get to this right away, because the devil of poor attendance may deny it much of an afterlife.

Race

Post

I may have seen a more formulaic, cliché-ridden sports biopic in my life, but I can't think when. Hint to future filmmakers: if the heart of your film is one of the best-known episodes in sports history, concentrate on character rather than trying to milk dramatic tension out of questions like Will Jesse Owens compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin? and if so, How will he succeed? Give your characters more dimensions than cardboard, and the fact that we already know the answers to those questions won't undermine your narrative.

I will say this, though: given that racism isn't just a historical cliché, this film is worthwhile if only as a teaching tool for the young. That's something; I just wish it had been worthwhile for me.

Trailers

• Triple 9--More fun with guns!
• The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist--Why can't Vera Farmiga get better work?
• The Brothers Grimsby--Just another assassination comedy, starring Sacha Baron Cohen.
• The Other Side of the Door--Spoiler alert: even though she's admonished not to open it, . . . aww, you guessed.
• Green Room--Biggest question from this trailer: who is that singing "Bad Moon Risin'"?
• Hardcore Harry--You have always wanted to be an action star, right?
• Me Before You--Khaleesi in a tearjerker.
• The Young Messiah--Jesus as a surly teen? Let us pray.

Sniderman

Deadpool

Crit

I was so prepared to dislike this Spider-Man wannabe, especially after I read the piece in last weekend's Times about the character's creator, who is like Trump-level assholish.

But the Jerry Lee Lewis Principle is at work in this smart, funny, reflexive action-film-for-the-brain about a superhero made, not born, who gets to his gigs in a cab and is concerned with righting only the wrongs done to himself. An uglied-up Ryan Reynolds gets to take shots at his pretty-boy rep, and a distinctly not-uglied-up (what sort of budget would that take?) Morena Baccarin, whom we've loved in Firefly/Serenity and Homeland, again is more than just a pretty face, but did I mention how pretty her face is? And then: Leslie Uggams; I'll say no more.

Trailers

• Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates--I gather this is a sequel? Dumb and Dumber for Gen Y?
• The Purge: Election Year--I'm tempted to look at the box office numbers for previous entries in this franchise, but I fear it would be paralyzingly depressing.
• London Has Fallen--Huh! No filmmaker has ever put the U.S. president in peril of terrorists before!
• 10 Cloverfield Lane--Worst quartet of trailers ever?

E pluribus unum

Where to Invade Next

Crit

That troublemaking lefty Michael Moore is at it again, preaching that our great country should treat women like equals (Tunisia) if not betters (Iceland), should treat greedy economy-wrecking bankers like criminals (Iceland again) and criminals like people (Norway), should treat drug users humanely (Portugal) and workers royally (Italy), should feed its schoolchildren delicious and nutritious meals (France) and should foot the bill for higher education (Slovak-- oops, no: Slovenia), and perhaps at the heart of everything, should confront and atone for the sins of its past (Germany).

Damn radical! Who does he think he is? Who does he think we are?

Trailers

• I Saw the Light--Seriously? Tod Hiddleston of Westminster, London, is our choice to play the  favorite son of Mount Olive, Alabama? Yeah, OK, I get it: it's acting. Still . . .
• Now You See Me 2--Reviews suggested the first one was a waste of its great cast, so . . .

The music man

Orfeu negro (Black Orpheus)

(1959)

Really? You still haven't seen this, even though I've told you repeatedly that it's the most beautiful film I know? Did I mention that it had cute animals in it?

Well, watch/listen to this, at least. And this, while you're at it.

Ahead of the weather

Groundhog Day

(1993)

With the long weekend of shorts, I forgot about this last week, but I really didn't have time for it anyway. When I remembered, I gave serious consideration to giving it a miss this year, but really, why would I do that?

How do we simulate love, how do we really love, and how do we know the difference?

And is it really Carnaval time already? And did I really skip Orfeu negro last year?

Hooray for Hollywood!

Hail, Caesar!

Crit

Good god, what grand, goofy fun. I come to bury no one, but to praise many:

• Scarlett Johansson, Bronx-accented brilliant in a small role
• Jonah Hill, wonderful in a single scene, a role so small that if you saw the trailer you've seen half of it
• Tilda Swinton, her usual perfection in two small roles
• Ralph Fiennes, on point even if largely recycling his Grand Budapest Hotel work
• Alden Ehrenreich (who? exactly!), the charm surprise of the season as a cowboy asked to leave his comfort zone
• Alison Pill, painfully right in a single scene as a supportive 1951 housewife
• Frances McDormand, with a single-scene slapstick turn
• and oh my god, Channing Tatum as a Kelly-esque hoofer with a secret

It's an actor's movie, and I haven't even mentioned Josh Brolin, as a studio head so sincerely Catholic that he goes to confession after lying to his wife about sneaking cigarettes. Or George Clooney in a semi-sleazy role he could sleepwalk through but doesn't.

But the most remarkable thing is how sweet this picture is. It's ostensibly a satire, but can it be satire when all the characters are likable, and even the milieu, so ugly in Barton Fink, seems like a pretty neat place to make a living? I'm not being ironic (or disapproving) when I call this the feel-good picture of . . . well, the year has just started, but this sets a high bar.

Trailers

• Money Monster--Julia and George together again, in a film about Wall Street greed and media exploitation.
• Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising--Seriously? We needed a sequel?